Sorry folks but this one didn't go well for Marvel. I don't even know where to start. Acting was average, more like below average. Screenplay was as much ordinary as it could be. No surprise here. CGI was OK but it's somehow expected from Marvel. But I totally didn't like the idea of Wakanda. Hidden city in the center of Africa with tons of technology and advanced weapons and systems and so on. But how the hell did they build all of that? No explanation. It just happened. Yes, they have Vibranium, but they don't sell it. In fact they never did and for whole world they are just a bunch of shepherds and farmers. So where did they take all that money to build empire like this? I don't like movies without explanations and this is one of them. Almost nothing has been told about Vibranium whatsoever. Oh yeah, it's some super thing from the universe capable of anything. That's all the explanation you get. There are too many clichés we have already seen too many times. And we have to see them again. One example: I challenge someone for a fight because I want to kill him. And when I have the chance to kill him, what would I do? Kill him or throw him down from the cliff to the water where he can survive? But enough. If you hesitate if to watch this, I can recommend not to waste your time. Wait for the Avangers where you can also see the Black Panther. You won't miss anything if you miss out this movie.
Belle... A collection of music videos glued together by a really badly written narrative.
Belle is one of the weakest animated movies i have seen in the past few years, and that makes me really sad, as a fan of the director i went into this expecting an 8 or an 9, but what i got is a 5 at best.
Belle has a interesting idea, with its reworking of the "beauty and the beast" and its child abuse themes... But it fails to build on its characters and to explain basic premises of its own world, making it for a very boring and bland experience.
Most of the things we thought would be relevant were completely ignored and absolutely useless, we asked ourselves watching "did she get some disease and now is unable to sing in the real world and that is why the U is an escape?" No, they never address this, she just fails to sing and vomits once because the movie wanted to i guess? They keep all her "friends" completely irrelevant and underdeveloped until the last quarter of the movie, so i basically don't care about any of them in the end, they never explain the socio economical structure of the U world... How does this work? They say the avatar is made automatically based on people physiognomy, but the avatars are crazy different in form and species, how can that be made from ones physiognomy? How is the invitation system decided? Who is invited and why? Why even have an invitation system instead of selling the app or freely distributing it if that ends up irrelevant to the story? Why show us a very interesting singer character on the start that rivalizes our belle if you are just going to forget her for the whole movie? How to know which avatars are AI controlled and which are actually people? Is it possible do die in U? If not, what is the relevance of all the conflict we see?
Belle raises too many questions and answer very little, it presents us with an beautiful and interesting virtual world but tells us NOTHING about it and how it all works, it presents us with futuristic technology in a world that seems stuck in the 2000s, it gives us many bland and uninteresting characters with only one personality trait each and develops none of them... There are so many problems, so many drawn out scenes... That it all gets boring and tiresome...
And.... That makes me really sad, the music is GREAT, the visuals are BEAUTIFUL, the music scenes are AMAZING... But they are few and far in between and the rest of the movie... Is not interesting, they present us a nice duality of belle and the beast, but their interest in one another is so out of nowhere and forced that it doesnt feel even a little bit real or natural... There is a great scene that develops the characters and emotional connects, but it is only in the last quarter of the movie... When it has already lost all my interest and attention... and the plot of child abuse is ok and very important... But it feels shoved in... The main plot... Feels shoved in... Oh, and how they find the boy... Well, that was just the worst "investigation" bit i have ever seen...
I really wanted to like this movie, but there are just too many unanswered questions, just too little character development, and a plot that is just generic and bland enough to lose my attention... The visuals and music alone are not enough...
At the end, i feel like they made some really great music videos and didnt want to release it as just animated music videos, so they wrote a really bland movie around it and shoved a controversial and important theme(child abuse) to appeal to peoples hearts in an effective but kinda cheap way.
Unequivocally do not recommend anyone watch this, it brings nothing new to the table, and actually manages to tarnish the Cube name.
Totally agree with @movieswatcher, at about the 1h10 mark, the movie just completely goes off the rails and gets annoyingly bad.
Even so, from the get-go it's just a messy story:
The characters are all weirdly invested in each other after barely speaking to each other, let alone getting to know one another. Speaking of, there doesn't even seem to be that much time passing, like were they in there just a few hours? Then there's that utterly unnecessary gate that comes up in between the group, separating them because... who the heck knows? They could have easily used the doors closing as a similar plot device, but no.
Then the subplot of the dude who keeps freezing up because of some boring childhood trauma (that we keept being shown repeatedly). Eventually it even gets projected onto one of the walls of the cube... what, why ? Let him tell the story, then react, and we can guess it's from the only info we know about him (said story).
Finally, what was with the super generic generational age gape hatred which @movieswatcher mentioned as well ?
Additionally, that completely useless female character who never speaks and is way to obvious in her acting, revealing within minutes that she's in fact a robot . Then the rooms reacting to the crazy guy's mood which once again: served no purpose, doesn't make things interesting, and it doesn't advance the plot... it's there, and adds nothing of value.
Kinda like this whole movie: adds nothing of value. Skip, and go re-watch the original.
*Old fashioned murder mystery on a ship.*
A nice easy breezy murder mystery. Full of fun. Don't count on anything serious or deep here just sit back with your popcorn and a soda and enjoy the movie. Nothing offencive here. Just an adult murder mystery romp. We don't get many like these anymore. Ignore the people who like to criticize everything because they think they are actual critics. Chemistry between Aniston and Sadler is awesome. I hope they make more movies together. Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler are the best!
My Score: 7/10.
^^*Trivias*^^
+This movie set a new Netflix record. In the first 3 days 30,869,863 accounts watched the film. 13,374,914 North American accounts & and an additional 17,494,949 accounts watching worldwide.
+The movie seems to be an Agatha Christi-esque style murder mystery thriller. At the end of the movie, we see the characters of Audrey and Nick on a train named "The Orient Express". This is a direct homage to Agatha Christie's famous "Murder on the Orient Express" (1935) novel.
+Adam Sandler's real life wife, Jackie Sandler, makes a cameo appearance as the flight attendant on the plane.
+When Audrey goes to the first-class section of the plane, a passenger is watching a clip of Game Over, Man! (2018), another film directed by Kyle Newacheck.
+In the movie Nick mentions a guy named Eric Lamonsoff. Kevin James played a character named Eric Lamonsoff in Grownups and Grownups 2, also starring Adam Sandler. Most of Sandler's films reference that last name, in a nod to his old friend.
+Andrea Bendewald who plays a customer in the salon Jennifer Aniston is working at in the start of the movie. Andrea is Jennifer's best friend. She was maid of honour at her wedding to Brad Pitt. She also guest starred in Jennifer's sitcom "Friends"
+Adam Sandler's and Jennifer Aniston's second film together. The first was Just Go with It (2011).
+In 2013, a report surfaced from a German financier that Colin Firth, Adam Sandler and Emily Blunt would be joining Charlize Theron in the movie, which turned out to be false. Coincidentally, Sandler did become attached to the project in 2018, though Theron had already left.
+When Nick and Audrey arrive at Malaga Airport (Spain), the airport shown is actually Milan Malpensa Airport (Italy), not Malaga Airport.
+This is the third film featuring Luke Evans and Gemma Arterton together following Clash of the Titans (2010) and Tamara Drewe (2010).
+Charlize Theron was once attached.
+The shield shown by Nick on the plane and in the store is a patrolmen's shield yet he was referred to as a Sergeant.
+Luke Evans and Victor Turpin, who both appeared in "Murder Mystery", are a couple in real life.
+During the interrogation, the character yells 187. That is a California code for murder, not world or US code.
+John Madden was once attached to direct the movie. Anne Fletcher was attached to direct the movie later.
+The Rolls-Royce that Cavendish owns is a Phantom Drophead Coupe, License plate number EQU 617. Recent models (2016) approaches $533,000 new. It gets 14 MPG, has a 412 cubic inch, 453 horsepower V-12 engine, and weighs in at 5,780 pounds. (16.8l/100km, 6.8l V12, 2.6t)
+Game-Over Man (another netflix movie) is playing on the airplane when Jennifer Aniston's character is wandering around the plan.
Spoilers
+Body count: 6
+At the end of the movie when Nick and Audrey are on the train, the camera pans out and we see the name of the train is Orient Express. This is in reference to another famous murder mystery movie, Murder on the Orient Express.
Three words: I. LOVED. IT.
Listen, I'm a simple bitch, okay? Let's establish that right out of the gate. I can make fun of tropes all day long (especially the romantic ones) but in the end, I will eat that shit right up and walk out of the theater with the biggest grin on my face. Arthur and Mera accidentally hold hands and suddenly I turn into your 80-year-old grandma Gladys clutching her pearls and going "oh my". Jason Momoa and Amber Heard are DCEU's new dynamite duo (as much as I love Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, they've been knocked off the top spot for me). Their chemistry makes my skin tingle. Was the romance cliche? Hell yeah it was! And I adored every second of it!
Of course some stuff besides the romance also happens (but who cares about that? Not Gladys, that's for sure). The main plotline of finding the Trident does feel kinda like a treasure hunt with Arthur and Mera hopping from place to place, but because their chemistry and dynamic is just THAT good, it's all very fun and watchable. The villain is... well, he certainly is, eh? Actually there's two of them, but neither really made me feel anything. Still better than Steppenwolf, I guess? Although that's not saying much. The jokes hit more often than they miss and the movie did get a few good laughs out of me. But the more serious moments hit home for me as well, whether it's Arthur's reunion with his mother or his admission that he knows he doesn't deserve the Trident but it's his only hope of saving the people he loves. The tone feels pretty consistent and the transitions between the dramatic and comedic moments don't seem as jarring as in some other DCEU installments. The fight scenes are awesome. Especially the one in Sicily really made me feel pumped.
My favorite scene was by far Mera really experiencing the life on land for the first time. Her wide-eyed wonder (no pun intended, I guess) not only reminded me of Diana arriving in London, but it also had something wonderfully Little Mermaid-like (and not just because of the hair) about it. It was soft. It was pure. It made me feel warm inside. Mera eating the roses and Arthur immediately doing the same? Nobody's ever gonna ride for me this hard. Those are the kind of scenes that ground these huge superhero movies, that make them feel relatable to me and allow me to take a breath and really connect with the characters. And when 20 minutes later Mera goes full Bad Bitch In Charge on those soldiers and kills them with deadly wine spikes? Oh, I just about lost my mind. I want her to murder me. But aside from that entire sequence, there were plenty of other moments that really got my attention: little Arthur at the aquarium, Arthur and Mera's escape from Atlantis (such a fun chase!), our favorite power couple emerging from the ocean looking like they're on Baywatch (it was great, don't @ me), every time Mera used her powers (the glowing eyes!), the list goes on.
The visuals are absolutely stunning. Gone are the dreary grays of some lesser DCEU movies. Instead we get beautiful colors (Atlantis is beyond gorgeous), some great shots (Arthur and Mera swimming with the flare while surrounded by thousands of Trench people is breathtaking) and of course incredible CGI. It's a very aesthetically pleasing movie. And the music! I loved the music. This is one of the soundtracks I'm definitely gonna need to listen to at some point. And it takes some big balls to put a cover of Toto's Africa in your movie. I appreciate that. Some people are definitely gonna cringe when they hear it, but I had the biggest grin on my face.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable ride. It's quite long, but it didn't drag. I was invested in Arthur's journey. I thought the casting was perfect (and gosh darn do Jason Momoa and Amber Heard look good together! That has to be one of the most visually stunning pairings to have ever graced the big screen). And I just... felt super happy afterwards. I still can't stop smiling. It's a good movie not just by DCEU standards, but in general. I'd love to see it again and I'll definitely try to do so over the holidays. I honestly didn't expect to like it as much as I did. What a great surprise.
Average rating based on all episodes: 7.9
This show deserves that and more. It's great in all kinds of little ways. I actually tried to watch the show as slowly as possible to prolong the experience. That there was only one season is such a shame!
Looking back at my ratings, there was only one episode out of the ten that didn't quite live up to expectations. Achieving 90% "Good" or better episodes is an achievement for any show, no matter its genre or country of origin.
The big thing with Time Taxi (also known as Great Selection Taxi in English, or Suteki na Sentaxi in Japanese) is that the individual episodes aren't necessarily meant to be memorable on their own. They all contribute to the experience of the show as a whole, building on what's come before to enhance (or twist) the overall effect.
Eda-san's incremental attempts to "enhance" the time-slip experience are hilarious. They get more and more ridiculous as the season progresses, and it's all because he's driving the latest Sentaxi model that eliminated the time-slip noise from the previous generations.
I also really liked how we gradually got to know more about the other characters that hang around at Café Choice. The show didn't try to introduce everyone right at the beginning. We found out who was who at the appropriate moments.
Fair warning for certain viewers: There's a considerable amount of "fourth wall" obliteration. If you dislike characters talking directly to the audience, this show will annoy you. Personally, I think breaking the fourth wall is great when done appropriately, and it is so done here. A tongue-in-cheek comedy like this (which it is—a 「ドラマ」or "drama" in Japanese television terms is a type of program, not a story genre) is perfect for that sort of aside.
(Cross-posted from season 1 for visibility, since additional seasons aren't likely to happen.)
